Restitution Court: A Victim Centered Approach to Restitution Collection

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

Restitution repays victims for financial losses resulting from a crime. Since restitution payment is routinely ordered as a condition of probation, the general community and specifically victims expect the criminal justice system to hold an offender accountable for the court-ordered payments. Although the Maricopa County Adult Probation Department has extensive and generally effective procedures to collect court-ordered payments, the court found that specific individuals, who had the ability to pay restitution, were persistently and willfully noncompliant with court orders to do so. The target population of this program is that of defendants with a significant delinquency in restitution payments. Instead of appearing before the court for probation violation, defendants are brought to the court through an Order to Show Cause Petition. If the court finds the defendant willfully refused to pay, the court finds the defendant in contempt and orders the defendant incarcerated and sets a purge amount. The program has been highly effective in obtaining restitution payments Since September of 2008, restitution Enforcement Court has seen 221 individuals for nonpayment and collected $356,534 in delinquent restitution payments. The County did not incur new costs to implement this program, which has already been replicated by two other counties in Arizona.